


One More Night

by CruelisnotMason



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Friends With Benefits, M/M, Pining, Post S7, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-03
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2019-07-24 19:40:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16181834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CruelisnotMason/pseuds/CruelisnotMason
Summary: “So… that was a onetime thing, right?“Keith had barely caught his breath when he spoke, but something in him told him that sooner or later he should say something, before not saying something became an awkward thing to do. As if the situation wasn’t awkward already. “Yeah“, Shiro had said between two breaths, „right.“





	One More Night

**Author's Note:**

> This super loosely bases on some fanart that I saw. If I see it again, I gonna link it, but the possibility is high that you might have seen it before
> 
> {Edited it. Ending was weird lol, but no major changes}

One more night

 

“So… that was a onetime thing, right?“Keith had barely caught his breath when he spoke, but something in him told him that sooner or later he should say something, before not saying something became an awkward thing to do. As if the situation wasn’t awkward already. “Yeah“, Shiro had said between two breaths, „right.“ They lay next to each other in silence, both still panting, catching their breaths. Keith stared at the ceiling, unsure of what to do next. After a while he raised his voice again: “So… I’m going back to my room”, he tried to sound confident and got up to search for his underwear. It took longer to leave than he thought.

It was dark, the walls black - and so was the underwear he was searching for. Shiro sat up and watched him, propped up on one hand. Watching Keith look for something to put on made him restless. “Or, you know, you could just stay here for the night”, he proposed innocently enough, probably meaning what he said and nothing more. Keith looked up to him, for the first time not avoiding his gaze. He  considered the offer, or at least that was what Shiro guessed from his silence. “I…”, Keith began and collected his shirt from the bed, “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” He threw the shirt over his head and grabbed his jeans. “What about your underwear?”, Shiro asked, voice undefinable. Keith avoided his face again.

“It’s okay”, Keith replied. “Is it?” Shiro, grinned up to him, and the fondness in his eyes were making it hard for the black paladin to accept that what was happening was a reality and not a lonely late-night dream. “Goodnight, Shiro”, he added and couldn’t bring himself to smile back. Closing the gap between Shiro and him, he did what was way easier a few minutes ago, when he had stopped his mind from thinking and just roughly kissed this guy‘s lips and face. He couldn’t help but think what just happened could fire back eventually, but his mind stopped him from thinking any further. That’s why he left the room in a haste, happy that no one else was up late at night.

He shouldn’t over think this–this was what happened, when you got too close, Keith thought, then shook his head. Bullshit. This was what happened when you called a guy you admired since you were young _brother_ to deny whatever else could flourish in your silly little heart. Keith wanted to kick the wall and the wall to kick back into his face. _Brother._ What a dumb ass thing to think.

Except not that stupid–Shiro was the closest relationship to a family he ever had. Keith always thought Shiro was his knight in shining armor, the guy who suddenly appeared to help him when no one else did. He never thought that he’d be his closest friend, too. When Keith lay down in his own bed, he still couldn’t stop thinking. _Maybe we’re just two dumb guys, who don’t know what they’re doing. Don’t know at all, what they’re doing._

And Shiro? He was _known_ to be bad at relationships. So bad. Who would leave their fiancée, the love of their life, to spend the last years in space? – His mind could follow the logic, could follow the reasoning, but Keith thought, if he had ever loved someone as much as Shiro loved Adam, he would follow that person through space and time, take his dagger and storm after them, as long as that person could accept him. How could Shiro be so bad at accepting someone that loved him as deeply as Adam did? Could he deal with anyone at all? Keith lay down, pulling the blanket over him and tucking himself in tightly. His mind ran in circles and he had to calm down. There was only one thought that kept circling back. _Sleeping with him had been a mistake._

 

****

 

Atlas was on its way, on its way away from earth. Everyone hated to say goodbye. “It’s just that everything I ever wanted is on that one planet and I can’t find anything of that stuff anywhere else in the universe. I know defending the universe is important, but I can’t help missing earth - it’s probably not too far away, but still out of reach”, Hunk had summarized while everybody was sitting at their control panel and watched the blue planet that became smaller and smaller.

Keith never felt that he belonged on earth, only felt that he belonged there after getting to know Shiro. Meeting his space mom and getting to know her side of the story helped as well and getting close to the other paladins made him realize that he belonged wherever his family was.

   
Defending Earth and getting the freedom fighters and allies mobilized again had improved their possibilities in the fight against the Galra. The galra empire was scattered for now, with Sendak as its last authoritarian commander dead everything was a little bit unorganized. For now, they were setting their course back to a planet called Ganterezel, hoping to gather more information and collect whatever supplies were missing on earth.

  
“Ganterezel”, Lance had stretched the word slowly, voice seemingly annoyed, “Why do all planets have such exaggerated names? Why can’t it just be ‘Pluto’?” Nobody except Coran to answer, but he still did: “For a fact the earthlings language systems is one of the most unconstructed and noncoherent language systems in your part of the universe, especially your most spoken language has no system and consistency whatsoever, it’s like you earthlings just started mumbling whatever you thought was good and called it language!” Lance looked at Coran in total disbelief, then shrugged. “Whatever”, he said, “what is there even on Ganterezel that’s so important?” Allura turned from her control panel towards Lance and smiled, making the guy go red. “The people of Ganterezel are experts in manufacturing a kind of hydrocautique stabilizing multiplier for the ship. With Shiro’s hand made from altean technology and that multiplier we’d be happy to transfer more than half of the responsibility for the atlas to Shiro. I must fly the blue lion after all and…well, Coran can’t keep up alone on everything that’s left.”

  
“So, you and Coran will search for that, right? What are _we_ supposed to do in the meantime?”, Pidge asked as she stood next to Keith, typing away on some small computer in her hand.  
“We have to transfer some supplies to the ship, but other than that we are pretty free to do whatever”, Shiro answered, “so I guess, we could just enjoy some time and talk to the locals. Word has only slowly been getting out that Voltron’s back, so we could make sure that at least the people from Ganterezel know.” He looked into everyone’s eyes, even Keith’s, who dropped his gaze instantly to the ground. Pidge tilted her head at him but said nothing. “I guess you could consider yourself lucky to have nothing to do on exactly this planet”, Allura mentioned.

“What do you mean, princess?”

“Princess Allura refers to the fact that the people of Ganterezel have a high social bonding activity in their leisure time that might come across as similar to earths customs”, Coran explained.

  
“Are we talking about nightlife?” Shiro was the first to understand it. Understandably, as the other people who were socialized on earth only had been there in their teens, and none of them really ever felt motivated to start bar hopping and excessive drinking at that time.

“That’s rad! I can’t wait to party with aliens!”, Lance exclaimed, “but I sure hope they don’t drink Nunville.” Everyone else laughed softly, switched gazes and nodded slightly. They loved some time off duty and exploring space just as it was. Filled with drinking aliens in bars.

  
“It has been a long time since the last time I went out, though”, Shiro said truthfully, “I’m actually looking forward to it.” – “I **_so_** can imagine that the leader of atlas was a downright party animal when he was younger”, Lance said immediately, wiggling his eyebrows at Shiro. Keith’s gaze flickered to Lance. “What?”, his voice was pitched higher when he asked in disbelief. Everyone turned a little bit to him. Pidge grimaced, then looked back at her computer.

“I mean, uhm”, Keith started, trying to ignore the confused look Shiro threw him, “I think we should be responsible when going there, team. No extreme drinking.”

“Way to ruin the mood, Keith”, Lance spat, folded his arms.

“Nah, he’s right. Let’s have a bit fun. Responsibly”, Shiro agreed, not looking at Keith and got up. “Everyone’s ready?”

 

They sat in a corner of the space bar, watching the people of Ganterezel drinking and dancing – it reminded them somehow of earth, but the dancing was different, the mood wasn’t romantic or hot at all. To call the drinking part “extreme” was an understatement – but it didn’t affect the aliens too much. After Shiro had his first sip of Ganterbooze, he pushed the small floating cup away from him. “Nope, not drinking that.” Keith had drunk some, but not much, whereas Lance and Hunk drank one cup after another and were off partying with the Ganterezels, mimicking whatever movements they were making.

“This feels extremely weird”, Pidge said and adjusted her glasses, looking around the bar, “I don’t think I’m fit to party, to be honest.” Shiro shot her a smile. “You’re still pretty young, Pidge, I can imagine that there are more interesting things on your mind than partying.”

It was already an hour and somehow the unmelodic music got melodic to the Paladins ear’s, the non-club-atmosphere was getting comfortable and nobody was ready to get up their ass any time soon.

“Exactly”, Pidge  sighed, “like building that offensive drone weaponry for our lions. I can’t stop thinking about how I should link it to the lions control panel.” Keith didn’t listen, eyes locked on Shiro. He listened to Pidge’s long explanation of technical stuff to improve the lions, what she took with her from earth to make it happen and how alien technology was ridiculously more advanced than earth’s technology, even after they had been introduced to Galra and Altean technology. Keith took another sip of the Ganterbooze, then finally shoved it away too. “Doesn’t taste like much”, Shiro noticed and grinned to him. Was it the second interaction they had since last week? Shiro was so nonchalant, like he forgot already. Did he notice that Keith acted weird? Did anyone else notice that Keith acted weird? It wasn’t Shiro who pointed it out.

“Keith, you’re acting pretty weird these days. What’s wrong?”, she looked to Shiro as well. He visibly reddened. “Are you guys fighting?”, she asked, and Shiro answered her, a tick too fast. “Nah, it’s nothing.”

“Exactly”, Keith agreed.

Pidge looked from one to the other. Like a smooth detective, about to find something out. Keith wanted to beam himself away. Where was Kosmo, when he was needed?

But Pidge lost her interest in gossip quickly. She had a bunch of technical questions to worry about, after all. “Weeeelll…I gonna go to my lion. You guys…stay here. Just stay…the absolute same. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t…”, she noticed how Shiro’s face flare up again, “…I mean like, dancing. You dance terribly, Keith.”

“Bye, Pidge”, both of them sighed. There was still some tension, when Pidge left, but Shiro just went on with conversation. “So”, Shiro spoke up, “You’ve never been at a bar? Not even at the garrison days?”

“No”, Keith said after a while. This was the first time they were alone, not thinking about Paladin stuff, not being on the run, not being in immediate danger. He took his cup of…whatever it was back and took a sip. Ugh. Those drinks had no alcohol, but something else that was messing with the mind.

“I was never clubbing either. But I know, you did. Adam told me.”

“He...what?” Their eyes met and Shiro had raised eyebrows. Busted.

“Yeah, he told me how you were the worst person when it came to alcohol, two beers easily making you drunk of your ass”, Keith grinned for what felt like the first time that week. “I actually always wanted to see how Mr. ‘Let’s have fun responsibly’ gets drunk.”

The tips of Shiro’s ears went  red, embarrassed about that piece of information that fell into his friend’s hands. But he composed himself quickly. “Didn’t know you and my ex-fiancée were best friends.”

“We weren’t. He was nice and all, and just told me some stuff when I asked.”

“Stuff about me?”

He didn’t think that through. It was Keith’s turn to get embarrassed. “Y-yeah. Stuff about you.” Shiro didn’t have to know that yes, when he was younger, he might have been obsessed with a certain guy with black hair and broad shoulders. He didn’t have to know that years after Keith realized that there was more than just admiration in play. Shiro didn’t say anything, so Keith looked up to him.

The look they shared spoke volumes. Keith desperately wanted to know what he thought. Then, on second thought, he wanted a friend that could talk with him about the situation he was in. He tried to break the gaze, looked at his hair or somewhere else in his face, the face he had seen while beeing distorted in pleasure, the face that taunted him in his sleep and when he was awake as well.

He bit his lip, hard. A drop of blood ran trickled down his chin and dropped on his hand.

“You’re bleeding. Keith, are you alright?”, Shiro reached out for him, wiping some of the blood with his bare hand.

“I…yeah I am. Sorry”, he wiped with his own hand. “Maybe I should go back to the Atlas.”

“Maybe you should get some rest”, Shiro agreed and stood up.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m telling Lance and Hunk that we’ll be leaving, and they have to pay attention to theirselves.”

“You don’t have to-…” – “It’s okay. I don’t want you to go alone.”

Keith fell silent and watched Shiro walking over to Hunk and Lance, then coming back to him. That guy would be the death of him.

 

****

“I…honestly don’t know how that happened. Again”, Shiro was breathless, Keith too, but also on the verge of falling asleep. “Me neither”, he acknowledged and turned to him. Looking him into the eyes with the faint light of one or two lamps, he never felt more at peace. Shiro looked back at him, bare and vulnerable. He wanted to protect that man, however he could. And what he did instead, was screwing him for the second time.

“You’re really good at it, though”, Keith breathed, “I never would have expected you to be that good.”

Shiro wore a sly grin on his face. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re not bad yourself.”

Keith figured that this was at least half a lie. He had no experience whatsoever and it took double as long to get Shiro off than himself. He almost wanted to ask, _compared to who?_ Instead he shuffled closer, taking Shiro’s face in between his hands and kissing him. This was spiraling into a helpless mess – rationally, he knew this had to end, soon. They had to go back to being platonic friends only.

This was obviously nothing like a romance, not their feelings talking. This was pretty stupid and if Keith was downright honest with himself, probably a product of being too horny too long.

Shiro kissed him back, sweetly so. He also stroked his cheek with his altean hand-prosthetic, too, pulled the blanket over them both and shuffled closer. Keith couldn’t motivate himself to get up and back to his own room, and what was the deal anyway, they were all on the same space ship after all. Sharing a room wasn’t so different to walking a few minutes to get to his own room – at least that was what Keith thought.

Before he fell asleep in Shiro’s warm arms, he mumbled: “I swear this was the last time.” Keith felt Shiro tense, so he shuffled closer and pressed a kiss to his chest.

****

It wasn’t.

It had been a few weeks. The first one to notice was Lance, pretty accidently, when Keith tried to get back to his own room in the morning. Lance was sleep deprived, but not sleep deprived enough to not notice which room Keith just exited.

During lunch Keith sucked Shiro off on the training deck, after they went there with the actual goal of training but sweating and fighting apparently sent some other hormones flying through their bodies. To call it even, Shiro got Keith off, too, and they scrambled their things and left the training deck before somebody else was using their free-time for some training, too.

Then, it had been a week where everyone was busy fighting – they had been noticed by a small galra fleet and eliminate them, before any information about Voltron in the Southern Galaxy was making their rounds, and the Paladins had no time on their own. As soon as they defeated the Galra Fleet, Lance sought Keith. Originally Keith himself was on his way to Shiro’s room (it hasn’t been the last time after pretty many times at all), but Lance caught him before he was entering. “Team Leader. A Word?”

Keith could not possibly turn him down just to get some dick, so he nodded and followed Lance.

“What the heck is going on with you and Shiro at the moment?”

Keith had mentally prepared for anyone to come inquiring him. He was ready to give some answers. “None of you’re business, I think.”

“Keith, my dude. Don’t be like this. I know, you’re our team leader and all, but you’re also our dumb emo-friend, so yeah, whatever is going on, we gonna talk  this through.”

_Me and Shiro got down and dirty every other night, since we left earth. We sucked each other off more times than I can count now. I already told him that I love him when he tried to kill me. I don’t think he loves me. I got the feeling we’re just both horny. Maybe we both been out of it lately._

“I don’t even know what you mean”, he crossed his arms. Yes, the best strategy was getting defensive. Lance rolled his eyes. “You fucking do. When we’re all together, both of you don’t talk to each other. Then I go to the training deck and I don’t think I’ve gotta explain what I regularly run into.”

Keith’s face is like a tomato, but he still sounds composed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Lance opened his mouth, ready to give examples, but Keith realized his mistakes and slapped a hand over his mouth. “Okay, okay! I know, this is weird, but frankly, this is none of your concern. It won’t change anything. We’re still friends and everything. None of the other paladins have to mind it. We’ve got it under control.”

“Under control? Keith, excuse me, but what the fuck? What under control? Nobody cares if you got it hot for each other, except I’d be glad if it wasn’t in the training room.” Keith wanted to end that conversation, but at the same time, he was longing to speak with someone about this. He couldn’t speak to Shiro, after all.

“Okay, we…”, he started annoyed, then became gradually softer, “…we’ll only train from now on in the training deck. “

Lance patted his shoulder, looking very pleased with himself. “There. Wasn’t to hard. Do you wanna tell me why you’re not talking to each other? Yesterday we we’re in the common room. When Shiro made a joke and you were the only one who laughed and you two realized that, the air was so thick that I felt like being back to a cadet and together with Hunk in the simulator. You know, because of the throwing up-part.”

“It’s just weird”, Keith’s reservation finally broke down, “we speak a lot more when we’re alone together, but we don’t speak about the…deep stuff anymore.”

“Keith, are you two together or not?”

Keith had to take a deep breath. “I don’t know.”

Lance took him in his arms. Keith just let it happen.

“You should maybe ask him. Where you both staying.”

Keith didn’t answer. He would rather die. Shiro meant so much to him – and talking to him might make him lose him. He wasn’t ready to do that. “Or should I talk to him for you?”, Lance asked with a motherly impulse of protecting him. “Please don’t”, Keith said with a faint smile. “I’m …going to him, now.”

Lance released him with a proud smile. “Very good. Finally, Pidge will stop annoying me with talking about you two.”

****  
  
He entered Shiro’s room after a short knock. He was taking his prosthetic off, also getting ready for bed. He still wore his white lose pants and shirt he’d normally also wear under his fighting suit, Keith’s mouth went dry. “Evening, Captain”, he said, voice already laced with too much need. Shiro had to laugh, ruffled then through his own hair and turned around. “Evening, Leader”, he said smilingly, but his eyes a bit worrying. Keith desperately wanted to kiss every worry from his face, hold him and tell him everything’s would be alright. He approached him, circled his arms around his waist and looked slightly up too him. He had grown taller, and Shiro didn’t look to him as tall as before. But he did look even more adorable.

He _should_ talk to him, Keith thought, but it was so comfortable, this unconditional physical attraction and the touching. Shiro flinched a little bit, when Keith kissed his throat, then grabbed the hands that we’re grabbing for his butt and slowly pushed it away.

“This should stop”, he said harsher than it was meant to be. Keith’s brain stopped and felt the blood rush through his veins. He barely could look at Shiro. This was it. This was the end.

“I just…”, Shiro started, holding Keith’s hands instead of his wrists, “I don’t think I can continue this.” His face looked broken. His eyes looked so sad. Keith wanted to hug him, to say, everything was fine. Shiro looked even more heart broken, when he looked him in the eye. Keith was curious what expression he made, but only for a split second.

“I miss my friend”, Shiro said, “but I don’t think we really are at the moment. I think we kind of forgot about the friends-part.” Keith nodded. He was angry first, but Shiro was right. “You’re right”, he just said.

“I don’t think I’ve been really open with you, but…this was more than just a physical thing for me. I have feelings, for you”, Shiro said.

Keith closed his eyes, closed them for a long time. Shiro shuffled impatiently. Now he finally had the courage to speak up. “Shiro”, he said, coming closer, “I’ve already told you, I love you. I thought you knew that.”

Shiro looked at him, conflicted. “I remember everything. I don’t understand how you can love me, though.”

“I don’t understand how you think I cannot”, Keith countered, hands back on his hips. _You’re amazing._

Shiro smiled at that. The tiny, beautiful smile only Shiro had.

“Is this for real?”, he asked shyly, tilting his head slightly. Keith kissed him. “I think so.”

“Let’s talk more often”, Shiro suggested, then got on his knees. Keith’s eyebrow’s furrowed. “What the…”

“Keith, do you want to be my boyfriend?”

“Get up, this is embarrassing as hell”, he said and pulled Shiro in his arms, “And of course I want.”

They kissed again, but not heated as the many times before, also getting ready to just lay in bed and talk again. “What were you thinking the whole time?”, Keith’s laugh bubbled out of his mouth.

“I have literally no clue; my mind was a real mess. I at no point had any idea what you were thinking. I thought about your confession all the time, trying to figure out what it meant.” Shiro’s cheeks were red, and it obviously was something that he had been concerned about. “But I assumed that you your feelings changed.” Keith nodded and sat on the bed.

They talked through the night and decided way too late to turn the lights off. “Good Night”, Shiro told him. “Night”, Keith yawned and hugged him from behind.

“By the way”, Keith said, before falling asleep, “everybody probably knows by now. And Lance saw us on the training deck.”

“He…what?!”

“Multiple times. So, we gotta stop that.”

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/CruelisB) & [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/cruelisblue)
> 
>    
>  If you liked this, I'd be overjoyed if you left a comment! I welcome:  
> \- short comments  
> \- long comments  
> \- "<3"  
> \- constructive criticism! (Please take into account if the work is old/recent, and that I'm not a native speaker/ that I'm doing this as a hobby in my free time :)   
> So please voice your criticism politely; but I do absolutely welcome it!)


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